In this report we describe an optical scattering measurement instrument developed for the design of machine vision illumination. The instrument can measure the radiance of surfaces as a function of the illumination and viewing angles and it can be used to measure relative bidirectional reflectance (BRDF) characteristics of materials. The constructions used were the traditional mechanically scanned single detector based solution and a new video camera based solution. The benefits of the video camera based solution are the rapid measurement of a large scattering angle range and the possibility of viewing scattering patterns on a monitor in real time. The experimental results of the BRDF measurements on copper and galvanized steel are modeled by using reflectance models based on geometrical optics and wave theory.